Question

What are some Vietnamese Nôm characters that you find interesting?

Answer 1

Since not many people answered, I'll just answer my own question with my own favorites lol.

One of my favorite Nôm characters is đĩ , which is a vulgar term for “prostitute.” Why is it so interesting? See for yourself:

It's a 女 character with a dot inside. How does this represent “prostitute?” Well, 女 means woman, and when a woman has her “dot” exposed, it's likely she's a… well, you understand. The character is so creative in how it's created, in my opinion.

Another one that I like is the Nôm for mẹ , meaning “mother.”

It has 女 and 美 put together. It's obvious that the reason for its creation is 女 is for semantic, referring to a woman, and 美 is for phonetic, referring to the sound mẹ (which sounds like Vietnamese reading of 美 mĩ). However, 美 has another meaning in that it means “beautiful,” so it's like saying one's mother is the most beautiful woman in the world.

Answer 2

Basically Vietnamese Nôm is similar to Chinese, as you known that there are vary types of Chinese like simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese; Hence, Vietnamese Nom is one of the types of Chinese but it was used and re-structured by Vietnamese back in the past.

Answer 3

Thank you for asking to answer, Tim Tran .

I personally find the Nôm characters that do not resemble anything from Chinese characters are interesting. Or in other words: The Nôm characters that completely created by Vietnamese for writing native Vietnamese lexicon. As the ones followed:

I had to take a screenshot because VietnamAnswer doesn't display Nôm characters.

They're the familiar idoms in Vietnamese and read as followed:

“ Trời tròn, đất vuông.

Chân cứng, đá mềm.

Tre già, măng mọc.

Nước chảy, đá mòn .

Mưa to, gió lớn.”

Rough translations into English (word by word):

“Round Sky, square Earth.

Hard foot, soft rocks.

Aged bamboos, raised shoots.

Water flows, rocks worn.

Giant wind, big rains.”

Those are idoms and should not be understood in literal meanings.